THE Supreme Court yesterday said it has already received inputs from inmates detained in various jails in the country as magistrates revisit rules of criminal procedures for the Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovation 2022-2027.
In a statement, the High Court said the input was received following a series of consultations that started in November last year.
It said the stakeholder consultations sought to gather inputs from persons deprived of liberty who stand to be affected by the proposed amendments to the Rules on Criminal Procedures.
A team from the Asia Foundation and its partners, the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc. and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Rizal-San Juan-Mandaluyong Chapter under the Australian government-supported Fostering Advancement of Inclusive and Rights-based Justice Program conducted the consultation.
“They visited Persons Deprived of Liberty at the La Union Provincial Jail, Angeles City District Jail, Talisay City Jail, Mandaue City Jail, Davao City Jail, Davao del Sur Provincial Jail, and Correction Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City,” the SC said, adding the inmates included women, men, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, women with children, pregnant women at the time of their arrest, and mothers with children under one year old.
“The PDLs shared concerns such as the absence of competent lawyers upon arrest and prolonged pre-trial detention,” the SC added.
To address this, proposed amendments to the Rules include expressly allowing the dismissal of cases where the right to a speedy trial has been violated.
Other proposed revisions, according to the SC, cover alternative modes of detention, conditional arraignment, custodial hearing, and the application of the writ of habeas corpus in criminal cases.
The proposed revisions also aim to address the twin problems of docket congestion and delays in criminal proceedings.
In January this year, Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said 18,947 inmates have been released since 2022 as part of the overall effort to decongest the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City and six other prison facilities it operates across the country.
At the start of 2022, the NBP and the six other BuCor-run prison and penal farms held over 52, 000 inmates, although their total capacity is only around 12,000, or an average congestion rate of 231 percent.
The national penitentiary alone holds over 28, 000 inmates, a far cry from its original capacity of 9, 885 when it was built.
This prompted the Department of Justice, the mother agency of BuCor, to Institute a decongestion program, particularly at the NBP prior to its planned closure in 2028 to be turned into a commercial and business center.
In November last year, the agency said it would need around P211 billion to construct 17 regional prison facilities and three specialized detention institutions across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to decongest the national penitentiary.
